Free Broken Fall: A D.I. Harland novella by Fergus McNeill Page B

there’s money involved.’
    ‘Money?’ Richard exploded. ‘What are you talking about? I don’t get
anything
out of his death. The house goes to Jenny.’
    Amanda’s impassive demeanour faltered, only for a second. Harland leaned back, settling into the corner of the sofa, a faint smile spreading across his face.
    ‘Thank you,’ he said to Richard. ‘I wanted to be sure that you knew. Did your father tell you himself?’
    ‘Oh yes. The old bastard always had it in for Amanda and me,’ Richard grumbled. ‘He’d been threatening to cut me off ever since he first met her.’
    ‘Is that why you fell out?’
    ‘I suppose so. I mean, it was up to him what he did with his money, but I wasn’t going to be told who I could or couldn’t marry.’ Richard shook his head, a shadow of regret passing across his face, before he stiffened and looked up angrily. ‘So there you are; I had no reason to kill him.’
    ‘Exactly,’ Harland said, looking at them across the coffee table. ‘Neither of you had any motive to kill Albert …’
    Amanda nodded slowly, her face unreadable.
    ‘…but one of you
thought
you did.’
    It took Richard a moment.
    ‘What the bloody hell are you …?’ he began, then trailed off, his expression changing as he turned to look at his wife. ‘Amanda?’
    Ignoring him, Amanda stared at Harland – a long, level stare, trying to gauge how much he knew, how sure he was.
    ‘You didn’t know, did you?’ Harland met her gaze, and held it until she eventually sighed and turned towards the window.
    ‘Amanda?’ Richard’s voice sounded loud, scared. ‘What have you done?’
    Grabbing her arm, he shook her, desperate to elicit a response.
    ‘What the bloody hell have you
done
, you stupid woman?’
    ‘IDIOT!’ She whirled round, eyes flashing, teeth bared. ‘Why the
hell
didn’t you tell me?’
    Richard shrank away from her, stunned into silence.
    ‘
Well
?’ she hissed, leaning forward and making him flinch. ‘You never bloody stop your incessant talking but you didn’t think to mention
this
?’
    Harland watched Richard floundering. Why
hadn’t
he told her? Pride at first, perhaps … then later, when his business faltered, the dawning fear that she would leave him. Without the prospect of some financial reward on the horizon, she’d have no more reason to stay.
    ‘I … oh God!’ Richard sagged against the arm of the sofa, his shoulders twitching as the first sobs escaped him. ‘But why?
Why
?’
    Amanda glared at her husband, then appeared to remember herself, glancing over at the others.
    ‘You may as well,’ Harland told her. ‘We know where Richard really was. You’re the only one without an alibi now.’
    She lowered her eyes, her shoulders rising and falling as she took a deep breath; easing out from under her burden, free at last to say whatever she wanted.
    ‘Why?’ She slowly lifted her chin and turned to face Richard. ‘Because I deserve something. After all these years,
tolerating
you, supporting your business failures, turning a blind eye to your grubby affair,
I
deserve something. I deserve to be happy.’
    ‘But …’ Richard shook his head. ‘But I’ve done everything I can to—’
    ‘Not with
you
,’ she snapped. ‘For pity’s sake, Richard, how could I
ever
be happy with you?’
    Richard seemed to deflate.
    ‘What?’ he gasped.
    ‘I met someone else.’ The light in her eyes softened and she looked down, a different note in her voice now. ‘Someone who makes me feel … special.’ For a moment, she looked almost serene, the victim of a loveless marriage who’d been granted an unexpected opportunity for happiness.
    But Harland remembered:
The heart wants what the heart wants.
And he knew what Amanda’s heart desired.
    ‘Pity your composer boyfriend didn’t have any money,’ he murmured.
    Her head whipped round, a look of pure hatred on her face. ‘You—’
    ‘No,
you
!’ Harland exploded, jabbing an accusing finger at her, silencing